Ananda Basu, MBBS, MD, FRCP, M.D., has been selected as the director of the UAB Diabetes Research Center. His primary appointment will remain in the Heersink School of Medicine as the S. Richardson Hill, Jr. Endowed Professor of Endocrinology and director of the UAB Diabetes Technology Program. He will have a secondary appointment in the Department of Nutrition Sciences.
“I see great opportunity for consolidation and growth of the DRC in alignment with our Institutional Strategic Plan,” said Basu. “Over the next five years, I would like to foster greater collaboration and multi-disciplinary research between established UAB Centers since Diabetes is the prototypical chronic disease that lends itself to collaborative ‘Team Science.’ This would include recruitment of emerging diabetes basic and clinical investigators to UAB. I look forward to working with all to position the DRC at UAB to meet the needs of the patient with diabetes into the next several decades.”
Basu replaces W. Timonthy Garvey, M.D., who established the Diabetes Research and Training Center in 2008. Garvey also guided the effort to transition the center to become the only NIDDK Diabetes Research Center located in the Deep South in 2013 and has led the DRC since the day of its inception.
“I am excited for the opportunity to recruit new faculty because everyone – from UAB to those with diabetes – will benefit when we have more diabetes researchers,” said Barbara Gower, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Nutrition Science. “I am also excited to see the implementation of Dr. Basu’s sophisticated tracer techniques in new studies. The ability to conduct non-invasive in vivo assessments to measure metabolism in humans with, or at risk for, type 2 diabetes in real time will only strengthen the DRC.”
Basu first attended medical school in India before being trained in Endocrinology in the UK. After completing his residency and fellowship Training at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester Minnesota, he joined the clinic in 2000 as faculty. In 2017 he joined the University of Virgina as Harrison Professor of Medicine. He then joined UAB in 2023 as a tenured professor in the Department of Medicine and Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism.
“Dr. Basu is a highly regarded scientist and a proven visionary who firmly believes in team science," said UAB School of Health Professions Dean Andrew Butler. “I am excited about his ideas to grow the center, but I am even more excited to see him develop the infrastructure that will support the translation of future discoveries to clinicians who in turn will deliver those findings directly to those in need.”
